SparkNotes: Life of Pi: Analysis of Major Characters Analysis of Major Characters Themes, Motifs & Symbols Piscine Molitor Patel Piscine Molitor Patel is the protagonist and, for most of the novel, the narrator. In the chapters that frame the main story, Pi, as a shy, graying, middle-aged man, tells the author about his early childhood and the shipwreck that changed his life. This narrative device distances the reader from the truth. We don’t know whether Pi’s story is accurate or what pieces to believe. This effect is intentional; throughout Pi emphasizes the importance of choosing the better story, believing that imagination trumps cold, hard facts. As a child, he reads widely and embraces many religions and their rich narratives that provide meaning and dimension to life. In his interviews with the Japanese investigators after his rescue, he offers first the more fanciful version of his time at sea. But, at their behest, he then provides an alternative version that is more realistic but ultimately less appealing to both himself and his questioners. The structure of the novel both illustrates Pi’s defining characteristic, his dependence on and love of stories, and highlights the inherent difficulties in trusting his version of events.

Though the narrative jumps back and forth in time, the novel traces Pi’s development and maturation in a traditional bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story. Pi is an eager, outgoing, and excitable child, dependent on his family for protection and guidance. In school, his primary concerns involve preventing his schoolmates from mispronouncing his name and learning as much as he can about religion and zoology. But when the ship sinks, Pi is torn from his family and left alone on a lifeboat with wild animals. The disaster serves as the catalyst in his emotional growth; he must now become self-sufficient. Though he mourns the loss of his family and fears for his life, he rises to the challenge. He finds a survival guide and emergency provisions. Questioning his own values, he decides that his vegetarianism is a luxury under the conditions and learns to fish. He capably protects himself from Richard Parker and even assumes a parental relationship with the tiger, providing him with food and keeping him in line. The devastating shipwreck turns Pi into an adult, able to fend for himself out in the world alone. Pi’s belief in God inspires him as a child and helps sustain him while at sea.

In Pondicherry, his atheistic biology teacher challenges his Hindu faith in God, making him realize the positive power of belief, the need to overcome the otherwise bleakness of the universe. Motivated to learn more, Pi starts practicing Christianity and Islam, realizing these religions all share the same foundation: belief in a loving higher power. His burgeoning need for spiritual connection deepens while at sea. In his first days on the lifeboat, he almost gives up, unable to bear the loss of his family and unwilling to face the difficulties that still await him. At that point, however, he realizes that the fact he is still alive means that God is with him; he has been given a miracle. This thought gives him strength, and he decides to fight to remain alive. Throughout his adventure, he prays regularly, which provides him with solace, a sense of connection to something greater, and a way to pass the time. Richard Parker Pi’s companion throughout his ordeal at sea is Richard Parker, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. Unlike many novels in which animals speak or act like humans, Richard Parker is portrayed as a real animal that acts in ways true to his species.

It can be difficult to accept that a tiger and a boy could exist on a lifeboat alone, however, in the context of the novel, it seems plausible. Captured as a cub, Parker grew up in the zoo and is accustomed to a life in captivity. He is used to zookeepers training and providing for him, so he is able to respond to cues from Pi and submit to his dominance. However, he is no docile house cat. He has been tamed, but he still acts instinctually, swimming for the lifeboat in search of shelter and killing the hyena and the blind castaway for food. When the two wash up on the shore of Mexico, Richard Parker doesn’t draw out his parting with Pi, he simply runs off into the jungle, never to be seen again. Though Richard Parker is quite fearsome, ironically his presence helps Pi stay alive. Alone on the lifeboat, Pi has many issues to face in addition to the tiger onboard: lack of food and water, predatory marine life, treacherous sea currents, and exposure to the elements. Overwhelmed by the circumstances and terrified of dying, Pi becomes distraught and unable to take action.

However, he soon realizes that his most immediate threat is Richard Parker. His other problems now temporarily forgotten, Pi manages, through several training exercises, to dominate Parker. This success gives him confidence, making his other obstacles seem less insurmountable. Renewed, Pi is able to take concrete steps toward ensuring his continued existence: searching for food and keeping himself motivated. Caring and providing for Richard Parker keeps Pi busy and passes the time. Without Richard Parker to challenge and distract him, Pi might have given up on life. After he washes up on land in Mexico, he thanks the tiger for keeping him alive. Richard Parker symbolizes Pi’s most animalistic instincts. Out on the lifeboat, Pi must perform many actions to stay alive that he would have found unimaginable in his normal life. An avowed vegetarian, he must kill fish and eat their flesh. As time progresses, he becomes more brutish about it, tearing apart birds and greedily stuffing them in his mouth, the way Richard Parker does. After Richard Parker mauls the blind Frenchman, Pi uses the man’s flesh for bait and even eats some of it, becoming cannibalistic in his unrelenting hunger.

In his second story to the Japanese investigators, Pi is Richard Parker. He kills his mother’s murderer. Parker is the version of himself that Pi has invented to make his story more palatable, both to himself and to his audience. The brutality of his mother’s death and his own shocking act of revenge are too much for Pi to deal with, and he finds it easier to imagine a tiger as the killer, rather than himself in that role. More Help Richard Parker in Life of Pi (Click the character infographic to download.) Depending on which of Pi's stories you believe, Richard Parker is either a real tiger or he's simply a very developed figment of Pi's imagination. But whichever one you choose – the story with animals, the story without, or even both at the same time – we think it's illuminating to read about these characters side by side. And to at least entertain the possibility that Richard Parker is nothing more than an imaginative extension of Pi. And if your brain melts trying to believe in both stories at the same time, we apologize. Pi and Richard Parker are mashed together in more than one way in Life of Pi. Certainly the investigators say Pi is Richard Parker in Part 3, Chapter 99.

Even before that, though, the two characters share something we'd like to call "the anxiety of naming." Martel opens Part 2, Chapter 48 with the sentence: "Richard Parker was so named because of a clerical error." Didn't Pi also spend a long time discussing his own name? And his renaming through the nickname "Pi"? It's probably no coincidence that Richard Parker was named and renamed as well. Originally, a hunter named Richard Parker baptized the tiger with the name "Thirsty" (creative, right?). But in a paperwork mix-up, the tiger ends up with the name Richard Parker and the hunter with the name Thirsty. So there's a lot of renaming, discussion of names, switching of the hunter with the hunted. Coincidence? Maybe so. All this is to say you can interpret Richard Parker as an extension of Pi's character or as a separate but related character. We have our opinion. But you should have one, too. Richard Parker's Silence Richard Parker sulks a lot. Early on in the lifeboat, Pi doesn't even see Richard Parker since he's hiding under the tarpaulin. Other times, Richard Parker hides from the wind and sun in his lair.

We're not sure if we would consider Richard Parker, when he does come out to play, a very good conversationalist. But isn't God silent – in the writings of the mystics – for long stretches? (Martel researched these writings for the book.) Also, wasn't God silent during Christ's time on the cross? Perhaps Richard Parker, like a personal god in any number of religions, receives some characteristics from the very care Pi lavishes on him. Richard Parker's silence also gives him an air of distance – a nobility and independence he might not have otherwise. He is, admittedly, totally dependent on Pi for food and water. Granted, Richard Parker does communicate through action: his violence and the simple grace of his body. He does purr once and growl occasionally, but for the most he's what we call "the silent type." Which brings up a few questions, of course: How does Pi react to Richard Parker's silence? What traits does he project onto Richard Parker? Does Richard Parker really have any of those traits? When Pi begins talking to the blind Frenchman, and at first thinks it's Richard Parker, is this an attempt to break Richard Parker's silence?

Why is it so traumatic for Pi when Richard Parker leaves without a word in Mexico? Richard Parker's Savageness There are a few times when we're unavoidably reminded of the fact that Richard Parker is an animal. Late in the book, he kills all those cute little meerkats. Clubs them, slashes them. Kills them by the scores. At times, Pi catches Richard Parker sizing him up. Not only is this cat mean, he's cunning. He swallows a rat whole. He also swallows flying fish and kills a shark: Richard Parker turned and started clawing the shark's head with his free front paw and biting it with his jaws, while his rear legs began tearing at its stomach and back. [...]. Richard Parker's snarling was simply terrifying. (2.79.6) At times, we see Richard Parker bloodied from his feasts. Pi cleans out the bones from Richard Parker's lair and the excrement. At an early point on the algae island, after significant hardship endured together, Richard Parker runs at Pi with "the rapid and direct approach of a known killer" (2.92.37). Savage indeed.

Notice, too, how Pi becomes more and more like Richard Parker in his eating habits at sea. Pi even admits as much. Also, notice how Pi attributes moods and motivations to Richard Parker, complicating the tiger's savageness. Richard Parker's Enlightenment A key moments in the book happens during the flying fish "plague." Pi watches fish jump aboard the lifeboat. As he unsuccessfully tries to collect them, he looks up to see Richard Parker eating with ease or even grace: "Actually, it was not so much the speed that was impressive as the pure animal confidence, the total absorption in the moment. Such a mix of ease and concentration, such a being-in-the-present, would be the envy of the highest yogis" (2.61.19) If Pi learns anything from Richard Parker, it's how to engage with the actual, physical world. The flip side to Richard Parker's savageness is Richard Parker's comfort with his body and eating and being-in-the-world. Richard Parker's example, along with the necessities of survival, complicate Pi's religious beliefs. How does he connect the human with the divine?

Through the rituals of survival: the fish scales that rub off on him are "symbols of the divine" (2.66.6). Enlightenment is getting beyond our world, Pi discovers, but it's also about getting entrenched in our world. He learns this through Richard Parker. SparkNotes: Life of Pi: Character List Character List Plot Overview Analysis of Major Characters Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) - The protagonist of the story. Piscine is the narrator for most of the novel, and his account of his seven months at sea forms the bulk of the story. He gets his unusual name from the French word for pool—and, more specifically, from a pool in Paris in which a close family friend, Francis Adirubasamy, loved to swim. A student of zoology and religion, Pi is deeply intrigued by the habits and characteristics of animals and people. Richard Parker - The Royal Bengal tiger with whom Pi shares his lifeboat. His captor, Richard Parker, named him Thirsty, but a shipping clerk made a mistake and reversed their names. From then on, at the Pondicherry Zoo, he was known as Richard Parker.

Weighing 450 pounds and about nine feet long, he kills the hyena on the lifeboat and the blind cannibal. With Pi, however, Richard Parker acts as an omega, or submissive, animal, respecting Pi’s dominance. Read an in-depth analysis of Richard Parker. The Author - The narrator of the (fictitious) Author’s Note, who inserts himself into the narrative at several points throughout the text. Though the author who pens the Author’s Note never identifies himself by name, there are many clues that indicate it is Yann Martel himself, thinly disguised: he lives in Canada, has published two books, and was inspired to write Pi’s life story during a trip to India. Francis Adirubasamy - The elderly man who tells the author Pi’s story during a chance meeting in a Pondicherry coffee shop. He taught Pi to swim as a child and bestowed upon him his unusual moniker. He arranges for the author to meet Pi in person, so as to get a first-person account of his strange and compelling tale. Pi calls him Mamaji, an Indian term that means respected uncle. Ravi - Pi’s older brother. Ravi prefers sports to schoolwork and is quite popular.

He teases his younger brother mercilessly over his devotion to three religions. Santosh Patel - Pi’s father. He once owned a Madras hotel, but because of his deep interest in animals decided to run the Pondicherry Zoo. A worrier by nature, he teaches his sons not only to care for and control wild animals, but to fear them. Though raised a Hindu, he is not religious and is puzzled by Pi’s adoption of numerous religions. The difficult conditions in India lead him to move his family to Canada. Gita Patel - Pi’s beloved mother and protector. A book lover, she encourages Pi to read widely. Raised Hindu with a Baptist education, she does not subscribe to any religion and questions Pi’s religious declarations. She speaks her mind, letting her husband know when she disagrees with his parenting techniques. When Pi relates another version of his story to his rescuers, she takes the place of Orange Juice on the lifeboat. Satish Kumar - Pi’s atheistic biology teacher at Petit Séminaire, a secondary school in Pondicherry. A polio survivor, he is an odd-looking man, with a body shaped like a triangle. His devotion to the power of scientific inquiry and explanation inspires Pi to study zoology in college.

Father Martin - The Catholic priest who introduces Pi to Christianity after Pi wanders into his church. He preaches a message of love. He, the Muslim Mr. Kumar, and the Hindu pandit disagree about whose religion Pi should practice. Satish Kumar - A plain-featured Muslim mystic with the same name as Pi’s biology teacher. He works in a bakery. Like the other Mr. Kumar, this one has a strong effect on Pi’s academic plans: his faith leads Pi to study religion at college. The Hindu Pandit - One of three important religious figures in the novel. Never given a name, he is outraged when Pi, who was raised Hindu, begins practicing other religions. He and the other two religious leaders are quieted somewhat by Pi’s declaration that he just wants to love God. Meena Patel - Pi’s wife, whom the author meets briefly in Toronto. Nikhil Patel (Nick) - Pi’s son. He plays baseball. Usha Patel - Pi’s young daughter. She is shy but very close to her father. The Hyena - An ugly, intensely violent animal. He controls the lifeboat before Richard Parker emerges. The Zebra - A beautiful male Grant’s zebra.

He breaks his leg jumping into the lifeboat. The hyena torments him and eats him alive. Orange Juice - The maternal orangutan that floats to the lifeboat on a raft of bananas. She suffers almost humanlike bouts of loneliness and seasickness. When the hyena attacks her, she fights back valiantly but is nonetheless killed and decapitated. The Blind Frenchman - A fellow castaway whom Pi meets by chance in the middle of the ocean. Driven by hunger and desperation, he tries to kill and cannibalize Pi, but Richard Parker kills him first. Tomohiro Okamoto - An official from the Maritime Department of the Japanese Ministry of Transport, who is investigating the sinking of the Japanese Tsimtsum. Along with his assistant, Atsuro Chiba, Okamoto interviews Pi for three hours and is highly skeptical of his first account. Atsuro Chiba - Okamoto’s assistant. Chiba is the more naïve and trusting of the two Japanese officials, and his inexperience at conducting interviews gets on his superior’s nerves. Chiba agrees with Pi that the version of his ordeal with animals is the better than the one with people. The Cook - The human counterpart to the hyena in Pi’s second story.

He is rude and violent and hoards food on the lifeboat. After he kills the sailor and Pi’s mother, Pi stabs him and he dies. The Sailor - The human counterpart to the zebra in Pi’s second story. He is young, beautiful, and exotic. He speaks only Chinese and is very sad and lonely in the lifeboat. He broke his leg jumping off the ship, and it becomes infected. The cook cuts off the leg, and the sailor dies slowly. More Help Life of Pi Quotes and Analysis | GradeSaver Life of Pi Quotes and Analysis Buy Study Guide "'So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?' Mr. Okamoto: 'That's an interesting question?' Mr. Chiba: 'The story with animals.' Mr. Okamoto: 'Yes. The story with animals is the better story.' Pi Patel: 'Thank you. And so it goes with God.'" Chapter 99, page 317 This quote is essential to the story-Yann Martel himself has described 'the better story' as the novel's key words.

Here Pi enlarges the themes of truth, and story versus reality to encompass God, and all of life. If there is no way to prove that God's existence is true or untrue, and if the assumption of the truth either way in no way makes a factual difference, then why not choose to believe what Pi believes to be "the better story"-that God exists? This passage thus connects these central themes in the book, and so weaves everything together. This passage contains several of the important themes and motifs of the novel. The final question, posed to the author, calls attention both to the fact that this story is being told through an intermediary, and to the arbitrariness of the telling-the book does indeed have a hundred chapters, and it would seem that the reason was a simple challenge from Pi. Similarly, Pi's injunction that "we must give things a meaningful shape" connects two of the novel's prominent themes, storytelling and belief in God. He believes that the act of storytelling, of giving things shape, can apply in life too, and thus one can shape one's own story in the most beautiful way by believing in God. Chapter 94, page 285 This passage contains several of the important themes and motifs of the novel.

The final question, posed to the author, calls attention both to the fact that this story is being told through an intermediary, and to the arbitrariness of the telling?the book does indeed have a hundred chapters, and it would seem that the reason was a simple challenge from Pi. Similarly, Pi?s injunction that ?we must give things a meaningful shape? connects two of the novel?s prominent themes, storytelling and belief in God. He believes that the act of storytelling, of giving things shape, can apply in life too, and thus one can shape one's own story in the most beautiful way by believing in God. "This was the terrible cost of Richard Parker. He gave me a life, my own, but at the expense of taking one. He ripped the flesh off the man's frame and cracked his bones. The smell of blood filled my nose. Something in me died then that has never come back to life." Chapter 90, page 255 This passage shows Pi in one of his darkest moments. The relatively shorter sentences here seem to imply a closing off. Pi can only bear to remember so much; he can list the sensations but he does not delve into the awful event's effect on his psyche.

This moment, more than any other in the text, seems to mark an absence of God; it is also the moment where Pi's life is most explicitly threatened. Pi's guilt here is more easily understandable in the second version of the story, where it is he who kills the Frenchman. Either way, if Richard Parker is seen as a symbol of the pure survival instinct, this is the one moment in the text where that instinct wins out completely over morality and control. "I can well imagine an atheist's last words: 'White, white! L-L-Love! My God!'-and the deathbed leap of faith. Whereas the agnostic, if he stays true to his reasonable self, if he stays beholden to dry, yeastless factuality, might try to explain the warm light bathing him by saying, 'Possibly a f-f-failing oxygenation of the b-b-brain,' and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss the better story." Chapter 22, page 64 Pi here, in a short chapter, elucidates his opinion on atheists and agnostics.

He sees atheists as capable of belief in God, for they have always had faith, just faith in science, rather than in God-which Pi believes is not inherently incompatible. On the other hand, the agnostic's doubt is to him an active choice not to believe, not to have the 'better story.' "Animals in the wild lead lives of compulsion and necessity within an unforgiving social hierarchy in an environment where the supply of fear is high and the supply of food low and where territory must constantly be defended and parasites forever endured. What is the meaning of freedom in such a context? Animals in the wild are, in practice, free neither in space nor in time, nor in their personal relations." Chapter 4, page 16 This passage is at the core of Pi's philosophy on freedom. He does not define freedom by a lack of bars, but by the ability to exercise free will with one's time, space, and relations. Animals, and anyone whose survival is continually threatened, do not have this luxury. This passage also foreshadows Pi's own prolonged fight for survival, which restricts his freedom and brings him down to the level of animals in other ways as well.

In this passage Pi again draws a connection between his two majors, Zoology and Religion. In both fields, he sees the human tendency towards self-centeredness as dangerous. In religion it leads to a lack of faith in God; in zoology, it leads to a possibly fatal misunderstanding of dangerous animals, or to a cruel treatment of an essentially innocent animal. The two lessons that Pi refers to in this passage are that of his father feeding a goat to one of the tigers in the zoo, and that of Richard Parker killing the Frenchman. It is interesting, however, that Pi, in telling his story, focuses more on Richard Parker's betrayal of him by leaving him without saying goodbye. Here, it seems, Pi has himself anthropomorphized Richard Parker; he is hurt by Richard Parker because he sees a mirror in him. Thus Pi himself, although he has claimed to have learned this important lesson, has not truly done so. Chapter 8, page 31 In this passage Pi again draws a connection between his two majors, Zoology and Religion. In both fields, he sees the human tendency towards self-centeredness as dangerous.

In religion it leads to a lack of faith in God; in zoology, it leads to a possibly fatal misunderstanding of dangerous animals, or to a cruel treatment of an essentially innocent animal. The two lessons that Pi refers to in this passage are that of his father feeding a goat to one of the tigers in the zoo, and that of Richard Parker killing the Frenchman. It is interesting, however, that Pi, in telling his story, focuses more on Richard Parker's betrayal of him by leaving him without saying goodbye. Here, it seems, Pi has himself anthropomorphized Richard Parker; he is hurt by Richard Parker because he sees a mirror in him. Thus Pi himself, although he has claimed to have learned this important lesson, has not truly done so. "As an aside, story of sole survivor, Mr. Piscine Molitor Patel, Indian citizen, is an astounding story of courage and endurance in the face of extraordinarily difficult and tragic circumstances. In the experience of this investigator, his story is unparalleled in the history of shipwrecks. Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr.

Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger." unattributed This passage is the last paragraph of Life of Pi. It is an appropriate ending, because it essentially represents Mr. Okamoto accepting Pi's first story, and by extension, accepting God. Pi presents Mr. Okamoto with the possibility of shaping life as one would like to, seeing it in its most beautiful form. While Mr. Okamoto believed Pi's second, more tragic and horrible story, he prefers the first, and so Pi tells him to believe that one. It is not clear what choice Mr. Okamoto makes, until this final paragraph, which shows him accepting the tiger story which he at first finds so hard to believe. Richard Parker - LIFE OF PI LIFE OF PI :-D Richard Parker, Pi’s companion throughout his ordeal at sea, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. Unlike many novels in which animals speak or act humanly, Richard Parker is described by the author and Pi as a real animal that acts in ways true to his species. It can be difficult to accept that a tiger and a boy could exist on a lifeboat alone, however, in the context of the novel, it seems plausible.

Captured as a cub, Parker grew up in the zoo and is accustomed to a life in captivity. He is used to zookeepers training and providing for him, so he is able to respond to cues from Pi and submit to his dominance. However, he is no docile house cat. He has been tamed, but he still acts instinctually, swimming for the lifeboat in search of shelter and killing the hyena and the blind castaway for food. When the two wash up on the shore of Mexico, Richard Parker doesn’t draw out his parting with Pi, he simply runs off into the jungle, never to be seen again. Though Richard Parker is quite fearsome, ironically his presence was what helps Pi stay alive. Without Richard Parker to challenge and distract him, Pi might have given up on life. After he washes up on land in Mexico, he thanks the tiger for keeping him alive. In the story, Richard Parker symbolizes Pi’s most animalistic instincts. Out alone on the lifeboat, away from the world, Pi must perform many actions to stay alive that he would have found unimaginable in his normal life. An avowed vegetarian, he must kill fish and eat their flesh.

As time progresses, he becomes more brutish about it, tearing apart birds and greedily stuffing them in his mouth, the way Richard Parker does. After Richard Parker mauls the blind Frenchman, Pi uses the man’s flesh for bait and even eats some of it, becoming cannibalistic in his unrelenting hunger. Thus, in Pi's second story to the Japanese investigators, Pi himself is Richard Parker. He kills his mother’s murderer. Parker is the version of himself that Pi has invented to make his story more palatable, both to himself and to his audience. The brutality of his mother’s death and his own shocking act of revenge are too much for Pi to deal with, and he finds it easier to imagine a tiger as the killer, rather than himself in that role. Strange. Richard Parker is actually Pi, Pi is acually Richard Parker and Pi on the life boat combined. After all, this book has only one main character. Create a free website Life of Pi - Richard Parker Richard Parker by Yann Martel Richard Parker The identity of Richard Parker depends upon which of Pi’s narratives the reader chooses to believe.

In the first version, Richard Parker is a 450-pound male Royal Bengal Tiger with whom Pi shares a lifeboat for over seven months. The tiger is physically impressive, fascinating, and beautiful, but also extremely dangerous. As a wild predator, Richard Parker is essentially self-interested and threatening, capable of incredible violence. Pi manages to train Richard Parker, however, so that his own life is not threatened. Their relationship remains somewhat watchful, nonetheless, and Pi only physically touches the tiger once. Pi tells us, though, that he comes to love Richard Parker fiercely, and that without Richard Parker he would not have survived. Not only does the tiger provide companionship, but the constant challenge of maintaining dominance over the tiger gives Pi the energy to sustain his own life. In the second version of Pi’s story, there is no mention of Richard Parker. His absence indicates that Richard Parker is Pi himself—the aspect of Pi which had to do animalistic and violent things in order to survive. Whichever version of the story we choose to believe, it is equally true in either case that Richard Parker is the reason for Pi’s survival. ...Richard Parker Richard Parker is a...

1 Pages April 2009 ...Madison Garner Becker- B4 July 27, 2013 Richard Parker Analysis... 2 Pages July 2013 ...love alone, but that life isn’t worth living without it. In the novel... 3 Pages September 2012 ...Anthropomorphism of animals A black Indian boy named Pi is heading to the Canada... 3 Pages December 2013 ... Life of Pi a. Characters Pi - Piscine Molitar Patel... 2 Pages September 2013 Life of Pi Characters - eNotes.com Life of Pi Characters Life of Pi Characters Life of Pi key characters: In Life of Pi, Pi is a likable and curious teenager who loses his family after a shipwreck. He is unique in his study of three major religions and science to understand the world. Mr. Santosh Patel is Pi’s father who tries to teach his son caution and seeks a better life for his family in Canada. Mr. Patel is killed when the ship sinks. Mrs. Gita Patel is Pi’s mother. She is also killed when the ship sinks. Richard Parker is the Bengal tiger who shares the lifeboat with Pi.

He is both a friend and a menace. Mr. Tomohiro Okamoto is one of the Japanese government officials who investigates the sinking of the ship and questions Pi’s story. link Link The author's persona Early and late in the novel, the author projects himself into the novel, speaking of "I" and how the novel came to be. The author shares little about himself, only that he is a writer from Canada with two books published prior to Life of Pi. These details are true of Yann Martel but in a book that accents the constructed nature of stories so heavily, readers cannot assume they are completely one and the same. Pi Pi, born Piscine Molitor Patel, is the central character in the novel and at times the only human character. Born and raised in India Pi received his given name as homage to a family friend, Francis Adirubasamy, a great swimmer who spoke highly of the Piscine Molitor pool in Paris. Pi renamed himself to escape ongoing jokes about his name. Pi is raised on the premises of his father's zoo in Pondicherry, India, until his father decided to move the entire family to Canada. Pi's life is defined by two factors, one internal and one external.

The internal factor is his lifelong interest in and dedication to religion. Pi studies all religions for the sheer joy of it. The external factor is the shipwreck that kills his family and strands Pi in a lifeboat with only a few animals for company. Pi is an intelligent and likeable sixteen-year-old when he loses his family and passes into this ordeal. Mr. Santosh Patel Pi's father, Mr. Santosh Patel, is called simply "Father" throughout most of the novel. Readers catch a glimpse of Santosh's character in his attempt to teach his sons caution by letting them see a tiger kill a goat, and in his decision to change countries in search of a better life. A modern and pragmatic man who had run a hotel before opening a zoo, Mr. Patel is killed when the Tsimtsum sinks. Mrs. Gita Patel Paul T Kidd's Blog: Interpreting the Meaning of Richard Parker and the Life of Pi Sunday, 8 September 2013 Interpreting the Meaning of Richard Parker and the Life of Pi Who and what is Richard Parker?

Perhaps you already know that Richard Parker is the name of the 450 lb Royal Bengal tiger that appears in Yann Martel’s book, Life of Pi (and also in the film of the same title ). This one might say is a literal answer to the question just posed, but what of the figurative one? First I will say that, what is written here in this blog entry, is founded on the book and not the film. As with most films based on books, material is often left out, rearranged, and new content added, so I highly recommend a reading of the book if you are intrigued by the messages in Martel’s story. If you are not familiar with the book, then it has the same structure as the film. Part 1 is Pi growing up in India , Part 2 is the story of what happened with the tiger in the lifeboat in the Pacific, and Part 3 is the interview with the two investigators from the Japanese Ministry of Transport. Intermingled among the story are chapters which present the perspective of the writer, who is researching Pi’s tale.

There is also an Author’s Note – a Prologue – at the beginning of the book, where the reader encounters these words: “I have a story that will make you believe in God.” Before proceeding, I want to explain that I am looking at the Life of Pi from the perspective of an author and writer, and one who engages in allegorical story telling (e.g. see A Tale of Two Deserts ). I also mention here that in my stories there is invariably a reference to God. Perhaps you think therefore that I am a religious person? Think again! Over the course of my life I have explored Hebrew, Christian, Islamic and Buddhist theologies, as well as more esoteric and exotic spiritual practices. Why I have done this I will not say, but I will mention that, as result, I can well understand Pi and his comprehension that being a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim, all at the same time, may well be illogical from the viewpoint of the mind, but is not so from the perspective of the soul! Finally, I make an observation about the writing process. No doubt Yann Martel had many conscious themes in mind when he wrote his story.

But, writing is not just the act of the conscious mind, but also the sub-conscious as well. Often I have written stories, and then looked at them and realised that they speak of matters that were not at all on my mind. And so it is with the Life of Pi. This is one of the great beauties of the book, as many interpretations are possible, as well as the literal reading. One can say that this is the point of the book – there is no single reality, just different interpretations of reality (some individual, some collective). So what of the literal reading of this book? One answer is that the story can be seen as a tale of epic endurance and survival, and also self-discovery in the process. One can also see the story in the light of the central character, Pi, explaining in palatable terms, how he survived. At the end of the book, Pi encounters the two Japanese maritime investigators seeking to understand the reasons for the loss of the ship upon which Pi and his family and their zoo animals were being transported from India to Canada .

These two people do not believe the story about the tiger and the other animals in the lifeboat, and push Pi for a more believable account, which he duly delivers, not necessarily because the story with the animals is untrue, more because the investigators want something that their rational minds can believe. But this alternative story is a tale of individual survival at any price, with brutality, violence, killing and cannibalism. So in the end, when asked which story they prefer, they chose the one with the animals – most of us would! Evidently though there is more here than just a choice between two stories, as the opening of the book strongly indicates: “I have a story that will make you believe in God.” Part I of Life of Pi sets the scene for what follows in Parts II and III. Here, in this scene setting, one can see that the book is about God, spirituality and religion, and the soul and the mind, and also the biological business of surviving, without which the soul would have no human place to reside and there would be no mind. Life of Pi is also a story about animal behaviour and the strange relationships that can exist among animals, particularly that which sometimes happens between a predator and its prey.

Part I places a lot of emphasis on names. The tiger has a full human name (prename and surname) Richard Parker. It is the only non-human animal in the story to have a human name, as all the other animals have pet names (e.g. the orang-utan is called Orange Juice). The giving of names to people is something that is very human, and this suggests that Richard Parker represents some aspect of humanity. Also encountered in Part I are two people with identical names: Mr Kumar. Both are devout believers that have taken a leap of faith. One is a Muslim, whose act of faith is to believe in God, the other is a scientist whose act of faith is believe that science can explain everything, so belief in God is not necessary. What we can see here is a pointer to something that comes again later in the story: the coexistence in one person of apparently completely different beliefs, which is illogical from the standpoint of the rational mind. The soul however knows differently, that beliefs, often contradictory, can be just different ways of coming to know God, but, I would add, only if spirituality is present. This issue arises again, when Pi, being a Hindu, discovers Christianity, and then next, Islam.

He wants to be a Hindu, a Christian and a Muslim, but is told that he cannot be all three. Yes, there are theological differences, many incompatible, but the soul knows that these religions are just different ways of coming to know God, and Pi quotes Ghandi, who said that all religions are true. The argument that one cannot at the same time be a follower of three very different religions, is, self-evidently, a reasoning that comes from the mind, and this is vividly displayed when Pi encounters, while out walking with his parents, his three religious guides: the Hindu pandit, the Christian priest, the Muslim imam. All three end up arguing among themselves about the truth of their own beliefs and the nonsense of the others’ beliefs.

This one can say is the darker side to religion and earlier there is also reference to this, for when Pi first enters a church he mentions that “it (Christianity) had a reputation for few gods and great violence.” And then later, when first entering a mosque, “Islam had a reputation worse than Christianity – fewer gods, greater violence.” And when explaining Hinduism even earlier in the book, Pi mentions the curse of fundamentalism and literalism, and also recounts the Hindu story of Lord Krishna, who makes himself so abundant he is available in the arms of all the milkmaids with whom he dances, only to vanish as soon as any of the girls becomes possessive and imagines Krishna is her partner alone. This can be seen later in the figurative tale of the time spent in the Pacific Ocean with the tiger. Pi encounters a mysterious island, which seems to be composed of tubers of algae. The outer parts of these tubers are edible, but the inner cores are inedible, being bitter and salty. Also on the island there is plenty of fresh water, and also, millions of meerkats (one can see these as representing the billions of religious people in the world).

So it seems that both Pi and Richard Parker have found a place where they can be refreshed and their lives can be sustained. But, the island, just like religion, is not all that it appears, for it has a dark secret which Pi does not immediately discover. Choosing only to spend daylight hours on the island and the nocturnal hours on the lifeboat, Pi observes that Richard Parker will not spend the night on the island. Pi only discovers the reason for this when he decides to spend a night sleeping in one of the many trees on the island. Then he learns that the meerkats will not remain on the ground during nocturnal hours, but at dusk, head en-masse, for the trees. And the reason for this? Pi discovers that the island and the fresh water, become at night, acidic, and consume anything that comes into contact with them. And so it goes with religion too, once spirituality is lost, religion consumes people. They become no better than animals.

Which one can say is also the same for the fourth religion, science, which, being Godless and soulless, lacks the spiritual understandings of humanity’s uniqueness among life on earth, and the lack of such understandings and respect for human life, inevitably leads to … that which is described in the second story, survival at any price, with great brutality, violence, and killing. This we have seen aplenty in the 20th century, and here I refer to the godlessness and soullessness of communism and fascism, and their links to rational thinking, social Darwinism, conceptions of people as just being part of a nameless mass, and so forth. Next day, Pi leaves the island, preferring life in a small boat with a tiger, to that which the island offers. Now I come to the point in my commentary, which I feel is the most important, and this relates to what Pi and Richard Parker represent. Here I mention that in Part I there is much made of relationships between predators and prey, and how dangerous animals can be trained and why this is possible: in essence it is a matter of territory and who is the boss.

This is knowledge that Pi puts to good use in the Pacific Ocean when he begins to train Richard Parker, so that Pi can stay aboard the lifeboat, and not have to retreat to the makeshift raft that he is forced to construct to keep a safe distance from the tiger. More now on the matter of names, and Pi, who is, quite oddly, named after a Paris swimming pool: Piscine Molitor. So Pi is, Piscine Molitor Patel, but at school he was called Pissing Patel. Naturally, on starting at a new school Pi was keen to rid himself of this phonetic corruption of his given name, and he introduces himself as Pi, that number from geometry, 3.14, that is the constant which is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. But, the number Pi is not 3.14, but 3.1415…. In other words it is a number without end. Pi in fact is known as a transcendental number. And what aspect of humans is transcendental? It is of course the soul.

Here one has the crux of the story, which is not literally a young man alone with a tiger in a lifeboat adrift in the Pacific Ocean, but a soul, with its curse, the human mind, apparently alone and adrift in the great ocean of life. And the human mind (represented by the tiger) is dangerous, just like Richard Parker is dangerous, for if the mind is allowed to, it will dominate the soul, which, if not sustained, will perish. But in fact, both need each other. The soul needs the mind, for it is this aspect of humanity that is capable of devising the ways that delivers sustenance and also material comforts for the body, but without the soul, the mind is just part of an animal, and if the mind is not trained to respond to the soul, it would on its own, create a Godless and soulless world (as modern science and industrial era capitalism are presently doing). This is also the world that results from religion without spirituality, science without spirituality, and capitalism without spirituality.

And the outcome is clear to all, for the madness of the mind can be seen in everyday life across the planet and across history: the horror and brutality than men create comes from the mind, simply because they have lost their souls or their souls are dying. Out in the Pacific, Pi does battle with the tiger, or figuratively the soul battles the mind. He knows he has to do something about the tiger, but what? Pi runs through five plans to deal with Richard Parker, all of which are unrealistic. Then he hits on plan number six: wage a war of attrition. Time, Pi thinks, is on his side. Without food and water the tiger will weaken and eventually die. Seems like the right way forward, only it is not! Pi quickly comes to realise that hunger and thirst will drive the tiger from the lifeboat, into the sea, to swim the short distance to the raft, where a meal (Pi) is waiting. Then Richard Parker does something unusual – he makes the prusten sound, which is a communication a tiger makes, indicating non-threatening harmless intention. Then Pi realises that there is plan number seven, which is to keep Richard Parker alive.

So he sets about training the tiger, showing it that, Pi is the boss, and that they both have their own territories. This is partly what spiritual development is about. What this story ultimately says, is that there are many religions, including science, none of which are the sole source of the truth. Just as there are many religions, there are many paths to God. All religions (except science) involve a battle between the soul and the mind, and if the mind wins, hell usually follows in the wake of its victory – here I will just mention one example: The Crusades. With science there is no battle, for the mind dominates and the soul begins to die, and hell will, without doubt, follow – here I will just mention one example: Auschwitz . But it is also possible to move on from religion, and for the soul to engage in this battle on its own and ultimately to come to know God on its own. And there you have it – my interpretations, which are in fact, I admit, the underlying themes of my own writing. So perhaps what I see in this book is what I want to see, but perhaps not. Who can say?

Posted by ‘Life of Pi’: Comparing Ang Lee’s Film With Yann Martel’s Novel - The Daily Beast Literary Check ‘Life of Pi’: Comparing Ang Lee’s Film With Yann Martel’s Novel Yann Martel’s critically acclaimed novel Life of Pi has been brought to the screen by director Ang Lee. Did Lee stay true to Martel’s story? Mike Munoz finds the differences between the film and the novel. 11.21.12 9:45 AM ET Spoiler Alert: This article reveals major plot twists in Life of Pi. Based on the award-winning novel of the same name by Yann Martel, Life of Pi follows the amazing story of a young man named Piscine “Pi” Molitor Patel who finds himself lost at sea after his family’s cargo ship sinks in a storm. But Pi is not alone on this journey and must survive in a crowded life boat with four animals from his family’s zoo—A hyena, an orangutan named Orange Juice, an injured zebra, and worst of all, an adult Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

In breathtaking 3D and featuring stunning visuals, director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain) brings the story to life on the big screen. Although Lee does his best to stay true to the story, there are clear differences between the film and the novel. Pi’s Love Interest In both the novel and the film, Pi is devastated when he learns that his family is leaving their hometown of Pondicherry, India, and heading to Winnipeg, Canada, but the film takes the liberty of adding a character and giving Pi a love interest (played by Shravanthi Sainath) who does not appear in the book. In the film, Pi’s parents are concerned to find that he is practicing Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam all at once. Pi’s mother orders him to work for a dance class to take his mind off of things, and one of the dancers catches his eye. He follows her and her friends one day after class and is caught off guard when she confronts him. Pi manages to smooth things over and takes her on a tour of his family’s zoo. The two eventually form a relationship, making Pi’s move to Canada much more difficult.

PG Rating After reading the novel, it’s hard to believe that the film adaptation is rated PG. With four animals, including two carnivores, stuck on a small lifeboat with no food, it’s safe to assume that nature will eventually take its course. After a few a days on open water, the hyena attacks the injured zebra, and the novel graphically describes how the hyena eats the zebra alive and eventually kills Orange Juice as well. Pi is also forced to hunt despite being raised vegetarian and is even desperate enough to try and eat Richard Parker’s feces as well. The book isn’t for those with weak stomachs, but the film spares viewers all the blood and guts. Richard Parker Pi’s relationship with Richard Parker varies greatly between book and film. In the movie, Richard Parker is extremely aggressive and while Pi manages to survive with him for 227 days, he never manages to tame the tiger. In fact, there is one scene in which Pi attempts to train Richard Parker by getting him to associate the sound of his whistle to the sensation of being seasick. But when Richard Parker still shows signs of aggression, Pi gives up on the training.

The book, on the other hand, shows that Pi is very knowledgeable about animals from his time at his father’s zoo. He is very cautious around Richard Parker, but he quickly asserts himself as the alpha male and marks his territory on the boat. Pi is also more deliberate in his training with Richard Parker and has him literally jumping through hoops by the end of the book. On multiple occasions, Pi also notices Richard Parker making a sound known as prusten—a noise big cats makes to show they are not aggressive. Pi Loses His Mind Towards the end of the book, Pi loses his vision when he runs out of food and fresh water and he begins to have a conversation with a voice he believes belongs to Richard Parker. The two discuss their favorite foods, and it becomes clear that Pi is losing his mind. He then has an unlikely encounter with another man who is stranded at sea. Desperate for food, the man attacks Pi but he is killed by Richard Parker. The sequence didn’t make the film and probably wouldn’t have translated to the big screen. But it is a pivotal chapter in the book as it is the least probable part of Pi’s story and is the first time the reader sees Pi as an unreliable narrator.

The End (Spoiler) Life of Pi ends with Pi being interviewed by two insurance men who are trying to figure out how his family’s boat sank. The men have a hard time believing his story and ask him to tell them the truth. Pi tells a second story that directly reflects his first, but instead of animals, he is stranded on the life boat with his mother, a cook, and a sailor. The similarities between the two stories make it clear that his mother represents Orange Juice, the cook represents the hyena, the sailor represents the zebra, and Pi represents Richard Parker. While both book and film share the same ending, their tones are much different and can lead the audience to different conclusions. In the novel, Pi appears annoyed with the two men and almost seems to tell them the story just so they will leave him alone. But the similarities force the reader to decide which story is true. When Pi tells the story in the film, he becomes visibly upset, especially when describing his mother’s death. Where the ending of the book is much more ambiguous, the tone of the film seems to suggest that Pi made up the story with Richard Parker in order to cope with the horrible things that happened on his lifeboat. READ THIS LIST

Question: Richard Parker is a major character in the book and film 'Life of Pi', what is he?
Answer: A Tiger